Men vs Purdue Postgame

[SCTiger2011 1,277]

Obviously not pretty.  17-26 for three is ridiculous for Purdue but i know of at least 5 that were blatantly uncontested.  Great opponent, and this team isn't near as bad as it looked in the second half tonight, but I had hoped to at least see effort for 40 minutes.  I know young guys can get down when things dont go their way early, but if that trend continues over the next 26 games, it will be yet ANOTHER season without a postseason tournament outside of the conference tournament.

[AU64 10,122]

Not getting on BP about coaching yet...his problem is melding these individuals into a team...and once things started going poorly it looked like every man for himself out the on the floor....and most of them not wasting their time or energy on the defensive end.   No question Purdue was hot tonight but we barely contested their 3s....meaning to me that our defensive plan was to pretty much let them have their shots and hope they miss a normal percent.

JMO but at this point it is more of a teamwork issue than a talent issue....so let's see what BP can do to get control of the players on the floor.  Lots of season ahead but playing the playground offense and matador defense we saw in the second half....?   could be a long season.

[FoundationEagle 637]

Last night I posted best thing about this win. Tonight?

Worst thing about this loss:

We literally had pretty much our entire team simply give up and stop trying on defense while refusing to play as a team on offense for the last 10 minutes of the game.  At that point we were down 12. If being down by 12 with a full quarter of a game to go is reason enough for the entire team to just plain give up, I blame coaching. No way in Hades would I have let these guys finish the game period. The guys had already decided to lose, so there was no reason to keep playing them. Players that wanted to win and give full effort should have played the last 5 minutes and the guys that didn't should have their starting positions pulled for a game. If these guys had true respect and a little fear of Bruce, the effort would have still been there. I really have to hope that Bruce sees this in the film room and toughens these guys up. Right now we are so soft that 11th in the SEC as predicted may be closer to right than being a post season team. 

Best part about this loss:

Im over reacting based on the worst effort I've seen a team give since Lebo days, so it's quite possible that these guys just got tired against a good opponent and ran out of gas. If that is the case, talent alone may get us to the NIT. However, if we continue to only play half of every game, 11th in the SEC may be more of a reality than anyone wants to admit. 

Either way, I'm seriously bothered by the fact that Bruce only ever seemed upset at the officials considering his entire team flat out quit. Bruce is a high energy positive kind of guy. He may need someone to be the bad guy. If he can't convince these kids to run through brick walls for him, then he needs to hire a hard nosed disciplinarian that can. I truly believe Bruce will leave AU as our best coach ever as long as he's willing to change and adapt (and I think he is). 

Well, at least now we know where we are and he should have zero problem convincing these guys they have to work harder if they ever wanna be any good. Time to get to work. 

[AUFAN78 3,894]

Defense. What defense? We need bigs. When we run up against teams with trees we are going to struggle. Particularly when the trees find open shooters and those shooters are lights out as was the case tonight. 

Offense. We appear to be a team that feels they can run, shoot threes and simply outscore their opponent. No inside game to speak of. Did I say we need bigs?

[Auburnfan91 1,407]

14 minutes ago, AUFAN78 said:

Defense. What defense? We need bigs. When we run up against teams with trees we are going to struggle. Particularly when the trees find open shooters and those shooters are lights out as was the case tonight. 

Offense. We appear to be a team that feels they can run, shoot threes and simply outscore their opponent. No inside game to speak of. Did I say we need bigs?

That's what is the most concerning thing to me, besides how we played defense tonight. This is Bruce's 3rd year and we still don't have a big man who can provide some inside presence in the paint. 

I do think this is Bruce's best team so far, but is that really saying much when the first 2 seasons were bad? Right now this team has a ways to go to even make the NIT. Getting blown out by 25 to Purdue is not going to look good on the resume. A loss to a ranked team doesn't hurt but losing by 25 to a ranked team is not going to help our resume in the slightest. it does no good to schedule good teams if the final score is lopsided and uncompetitive.

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

8 minutes ago, Auburnfan91 said:

That's what is the most concerning thing to me, besides how we played defense tonight. This is Bruce's 3rd year and we still don't have a big man who can provide some inside presence in the paint. 

I do think this is Bruce's best team so far, but is that really saying much when the first 2 seasons were bad? Right now this team has a ways to go to even make the NIT. Getting blown out by 25 to Purdue is not going to look good on the resume. A loss to a ranked team doesn't hurt but losing by 25 to a ranked team is not going to help our resume in the slightest. it does no good to schedule good teams if the final score is lopsided and uncompetitive.

This game does help our resume. Strength of schedule is a component of almost every metric the selection committee uses. 

Second, you are overreacting to one game. Early season blowouts happen, go check the scores. Indiana lost to Fort Wayne yesterday, based in that game they aren't a tourney team, but based on the Kansas win they should be a #1seed. We got what we went to Cancun for,  a good win and some good competition. 

Deep breaths. 

[tigermac 11]

I know we got our butts kicked but I'm not all that down about it. In no way, shape, or form do I think our team quit. Purdue went on a run, and we started trying to play hero ball to get back in it and it snowballed. Before we knew it the game was out of reach. They are a talented top 15 team with a couple of pro talents inside and good enough guards. Still we did some good things we can be proud of. The defense could use some work but these young guys are adapting to the level of attention to detail it requires night in and night out for 40 minutes. I mean give Purdue credit, they shot a ridiculous percentage from 3 regardless. You give them those same 26 threes in an empty gym and they may not make 17 again. If they'd made 10, which would be closer to an average night, we're looking at a different game. They blew it open because they caught fire. Sometimes you just gotta tip your cap to a team that played awesome.

[FoundationEagle 637]

19 minutes ago, tigermac said:

In no way, shape, or form do I think our team quit

There was easily 8-10 possessions in a row for Purdue where we simply didn't even bother to cover more than one guy at a time.  Call it what you want, I call that quitting. Does it mean we are doomed? No. It means these guys need to be shown how they ran toe to toe with a #17 team (not quite top #15) for a half and had they not given up may have been able to pull it back in. If we learn from this, then it won't be all bad. If we don't and pretend we just had bad luck, well, there's always next year. JMO. 

[mustache eagle 2,397]

The team didn't quit.  They got beat by a better team who also shot lights out.  They played more physical than our guys are capable of and wore us down.

im gonna give Purdue the credit they deserve.  I also saw their big guy Haas giving hugs and talking to our players when shaking hands.  Nice sign of respect.

[WeagleAU 594]

In the last two games, Auburn has been ourscored 95 - 59 in the second half.  I've noticed a trend in the last several years that Pearl's Tigers start out strong and play a great first half, but slow down tremendously in the second half, sometimes giving up big leads and losing games in the final minutes.

This might have to do a lot with Auburn's struggles at the free throw line.  However, I also think they lack the stamina to play at a high level the entire game.  I know Auburn has had depth issues the past several years and that effects stamina.  I would just like to see Auburn play more complete games against power conference teams.

[AU64 10,122]

in basketball, early season losses don't matter that much when tourney time comes...usually it how you finish the season.  

As for finishing games, there is no reason for the guys not be able to play more than one half and I don't buy the stamina thing.   Watched Duke and they had two guys play 40 minutes and others play more than 35 and they pushed hard for the entire game.....maybe it's mental but the guys have to learn to play hard an entire game....and / or get in better shape.

When things started going bad there was too much individualism... probably based on their past when each guy was "the man" at his school and was expected to bail his team out in times of trouble....but what we saw here were forced shots, out of control drives and minimum defense.

If the coaching is there, the deficiencies can be dealt with.   And as for lack of bigs.................it is what it is, it ain't going to change this season or likely next season either...so BP and coaches have to learn to win with what they have. ....and no use I the fans lamenting the need for size.   Last night, all things considered,  I though AU handled the 7 footer pretty well.....it was not him that beat us...it was a couple little guards that we could not defend. 

[NoALtiger 3,849]

I know it was a loss but it just doesn't concern me that much. It is obvious Purdue has a better team at this point and we hung around and competed for most of the game. We were outclassed by a bigger and stronger team that is used to winning and is well coached- it happens. It showed our weaknesses and gave the staff things to focus and gameplan on going forward. 

C'mon guys, did any one think we were going undefeated this year? This game played out as it was supposed to, at least at this stage of this teams development. We'll get better.

[alexava 6,973]

glad i didn't get to watch.

[tombigbeetiger 223]

look, we did not have the size to handle them inside, so the plan was to pack it in around them and hope the jump shot was not falling....obviously, it was....had we concentrated defending the perimeter in the 2nd half, they would have killed us down low....i was figuring that would be the plan, and it worked, except for 17 -26 3 point shooting....thats 51 points from behind the arc....very rare to see a team shoot that well....it was just their night

[Tiger 8,818]

This was a nationally ranked team and we are still figuring out our roles in addition to Purdue being so much bigger than us. Overall this is a good experience for our young team. We beat an experienced p5 team on the way to a preseason tournament championship game. Progress. Remember last year how our doors got blown off immediately from the tipoff last year vs Xavier? We were sticking with Purdue for quite some time until they went bezerk and we went cold. I am actually encouraged of where we are headed in spite of the result. There's a chance we can be a dangerous team by the end of the year especially if we get Wiley's size in here. Horace and Laron, as much as I love what they bring to the table are certainly giving up quite a bit of size and if they get in foul trouble it causes us tons of problems.

[auburntiger1987 759]

If you don't think that was a team that quit,  feel free to keep your head in the sand. great first half,  faced adversity,  got frustrated and flat out quit. purdue was a good team and had to still put the ball in the basket, but quit acting like they're duke or unc.  

[jared52 4,354]

One loss and this turns into the football forum? Yikes.

[Tiger 8,818]

I only listened to the 1st half due to travel so it was hard to gauge the level of "quit" for me. But I was looking at it as an overall loss. We may have quit as some are saying but we don't have any true leadership on the team due to being so young and full of newcomers. When our roles get more solidified these types of things will be fewer and fewer as it pertains to effort. JMO, we start 3 freshman and 2 sophomores and we ain't talking about 1 and done talent here. We lost to a nationally ranked team that was a poor matchup for us. I may need to watch the game tof discuss effort though. 

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

On 11/23/2016 at 10:42 PM, Auburnfan91 said:

That's what is the most concerning thing to me, besides how we played defense tonight. This is Bruce's 3rd year and we still don't have a big man who can provide some inside presence in the paint. 

I do think this is Bruce's best team so far, but is that really saying much when the first 2 seasons were bad? Right now this team has a ways to go to even make the NIT. Getting blown out by 25 to Purdue is not going to look good on the resume. A loss to a ranked team doesn't hurt but losing by 25 to a ranked team is not going to help our resume in the slightest. it does no good to schedule good teams if the final score is lopsided and uncompetitive.

We are now up to 49th in ESPN's RPI ranking, after our trip to Cancun. You will notice that Texas Tech is not our best win, so the loss certainly helped bump us up in the RPI. http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/rpi/_/teamId/2 

[AuburnNTexas 7,137]

Purdue game was a good game for Auburn. We saw that we could play with a good team like Purdue in the first half but then the second half showed us our weaknesses.  I think a game like this against a quality team will help the young players (most of our team) understand why the coaches are emphasizing defense and blocking out. Ideally the first half will allow them to stay positive about their chances and the second half will let them know how much harder they will have to work to meet their own expectations.

Getting schooled can actually help a team as long as they take it the right way and work harder to get better.